Last week, on the eve of Advent, Facebook blocked Janet Martin’s blog, and deleted all links to it she posted in her feed.

Janet is my friend. We met on poetry forums in 2011, and have been reading each other’s blogs, exchanging emails, and occasional handwritten letters ever since.

If you’ve been to Another Porch you know that Janet is a very talented poet and photographer, and about the sweetest person one can imagine.

Yet Facebook found her offensive.

So, what is Janet guilty of?

The official, and vague, reason for Janet’s punishment is “violation of Facebook community standards.”

The unofficial, but likely, reason is Janet’s Christian faith.

Again, if you’ve been to Another Porch you know that Janet is a deeply religious person. Her faith is reflected in everything she does, in everything she writes, and posts.

Do you find Christ offensive, Facebook? Sure looks that way.

Put up a fight!

If Facebook discriminates against you, because you are a Christian, or a conservative, don’t just leave Facebook. Stand up for yourself, don’t let them bully you.

“Yes, they do! (target Christians, and conservatives) Not surprising at all. But they will NEVER touch what really matters and God is mightier than FB…his Word will never be silenced or ended. Hallelujah!” — Janet Martin

P.S. Even the links Janet posted in a private conversation in her Messenger were deleted. Guess what she linked to? Poems about Advent.

P.S. Janet’s blog has been unblocked, and she can post links to her blog again. Janet, being Janet, wants to think it might have been a glitch, or a faulty algorithm, etc. Maybe so. However, Facebook has repeatedly removed conservative posts from my feed, or pushed them way down so they became almost impossible to find; Facebook deleted my conservative Catholic friend’s opinion post, and the whole comment thread it generated, without any explanation, etc. And the fact that “private” Messenger is censored makes it even harder to trust Facebook. So, I’ll stick to my version of what happened.

Maybe someday the celebrities that disgraced themselves at the Gala will come to understand the difference between Catholic imagination and its counterfeit.

What’s far more important is that people who should know the difference — permit, and promote the secularization of the Church.

Those who should be in the forefront of fighting for the Church and her values — choose instead to appease Hollywood elite.

‘They err who say “the world is turning pagan again.” Would that it were! The truth is that we are falling into a much worse state.’

C.S. Lewis wrote this in March, 1953. And in September of the same year elaborated:

‘For no one returns from Christianity but into a worse state: the difference between a pagan and apostate is the difference between and unmarried woman and an adulteress. For faith perfects nature but faith lost corrupts nature. Therefore many men of our time have lost not only the supernatural light but also the natural light which pagans possessed.’ (from The Latin Letters of C.S. Lewis: C.S. Lewis and Don Giovanni Calabria)